Dental caries afflicts people world-wide. Dental caries can be repaired through a process that involves removing decayed portions of a tooth and replacing the removed portions with a filling. In a typical filling process, a dentist will use a local anesthetic to numb the area around a targeted tooth to be treated. The dentist can then use a drill or laser to remove decayed portions of the tooth. The dentist can then prepare the space created in the tooth by cleaning the area of bacteria and debris, and the dentist subsequently fills the space with a filling material. Filling materials can include gold, porcelain, silver amalgam, or composite resin fillings. After filling material has been applied, the dentist can contour the tooth to a desired shape by trimming or polishing away excess material.
In some circumstances, the dentist can use a dental matrix—often in the form of a flexible metal band—that is partially bent around the tooth and temporarily retained in a selected position (e.g., using a clamp or other tool) after removal of the decayed portion but before application of the filling material. After the dental matrix band is secured to the targeted tooth, a cavity which has been prepared by the dentist can be filled with a filling material (while dental matrix band preferably reduces seepage of the filling material outside of the cavity). Due to the varying size and shape of the targeted teeth in dental patients, the dental matrix band may not be capable of being properly seated or bent around the targeted tooth, thereby permitting some of the filling material to flow outwardly beyond the cavity area (e.g., beyond the normal anatomical shape of the targeted tooth).